Cantina Bar Balmain — Restaurant in Sydney

We saw that this place received pretty good reviews so booked with eager anticipation. Unfortunately we left very disappointed. Not with the food, which was okay as far as Mexican goes, but rather with the service. Despite being a small restaurant you booked using the QR code on the table. That’s okay because it’s pretty common with Covid, etc. However, after 45mins when we still hadn’t received a drink or starter we made an enquiry with the staff. And this is where we had a problem. Rather than apologise we had to prove that we actually placed the order. Which we duly did. We also reminded the staff that we had ordered everything together and had added a note to split out the starters and drinks. Yes, that would be fine we were told. Well, 15 mins later everything arrived - starters, drinks, mains. Altogether. We ate and then flagged with the staff that something was clearly amiss with their ordering system. The manager was called and this is where we received really poor customer service. No apologies again. Again we we’re asked we had ordered correctly and left a note regarding the starters. We showed them the order on our phone. Then we were told that we had to be considerate of their situation. Which is fine. We’re fair people and rarely ever complain. We understand Covid has smashed hospitality around and that was why we were out eating. To support the restaurants. But at no point we’re we given an apology and we were certainly not offered any compensation. A free drink or desert would have been absolutely fine as a gesture that they cared. Well they clearly didn’t care and so we left, very dissatisfied, pretty angry and with no way of venting other than to write this review. Maybe the manager was having an off night but the first rule of any hospitality is to serve the customer. We won’t be going back and certainly won’t be recommending this place to friends. Food was 5/10, venue was 7/10 but service was...

Terrible service from the manager. We were so embarrassed to have taken our friend here for her birthday tonight. After having used their QR code ordering system at the table we waited ... and waited ... and waited. The place has about 12 tables max - and it was obvious we were no longer looking at menus as we had already ordered (and paid unfortunately). In the end we were so thirsty and hungry I had to go to the bar myself and ask if they actually had our order. The manager would not trust we had ordered until we could show her our paid account on an own email account! Then, although a waitress had told us to put into the 'notes' system which dishes we wanted as starters, they all came at once. Again we were asked to 'prove' that we had put that in as a request by yet again bringing up the email. We had sat for 45mins with no food and no drinks (except tap water) and were about 3 metres from the bar area watching all the other orders go through for people who arrived after us. At the end of the meal when we thought maybe the manager would actually come and say sorry about the technology stuff up etc - nothing. In fact she would not accept that it had been an issue. We are quite easy going but this was so unprofessional. We will never recommend the restaurant base purely on how the inital tech problem (and consequently us waiting for so very long in a tiny bar with nothing) was handled. Or in this case absolutely...

I generally never write reviews, however after such a disappointing meal, I felt I had to. After reading some reviews and seeing a 4.1star decided to try Cantina, wish I hadn’t. Honestly the worst food I’ve had at a restaurant in some time, however the Marg’s were tasty, though lacked alcohol. Where to start… had the guac and chips, prawn and chorizo anticuchos, and jalapeño poppers as an entree for 2 - all disappointing. Guacamole was small, tasteless and starting to brown, prawn/chorizo was frozen items from coles poorly presented and no taste, poppers were just ok. Had beef and fish tacos, Beef was some pre-made slop dropped on a dried out taco, fish (basically a frozen fish finger) was at least fried fresh and again poorly presented and tasted very average. As per other comments, if you were served food this bad from GYG, you would never go back. The jalapeños marg’s were nice and well presented, however lacked alcohol. Tired of Balmain restaurants relying on constant turn over of new people and getting away with such poor standards at high prices. $200 for 2, and left throughly...